These are a few of my favorite things

Josiah has two enduring favorites in his life:

Big Froggy:

and Popcorn:

Life is sweet:-)

Way overdue

So, I have been SERIOUSLY slacking in blogging lately.  I was looking back at our blog from when I was pregnant with Josiah and see that I blogged EVERY doctor appointment, movement, extra gas, you name it.  Not so with this little one.  I guess that's what happens when you have another little one running around that needs your attention so you can't spend all day noticing every little thing:-)  I am 28 weeks along now (due May 1) and baby is VERY active.  Much more so than Josiah so that is a bit frightening given the level of energy he has now!  I haven't gained any weight yet with this pregnancy so I'm happy about that!  Basically, we're cooking along just great!  The next big step is to get the office moved downstairs so that Josiah's big boy room can be completed and he can move before Baby F2 makes his/her appearance and needs the nursery....we're working on it:-)  Speaking of Josiah, he is also doing great.  He continues to amaze us daily with his vocabulary and VERY active imagination.  His favorite thing to do these days is to "duct" which is short for conduct.  His favorite show is Little Einsteins and his favorite character is Leo who's special talent is conducting.  So there you have it:-)  He continues to "challenge" us to find any food that he will consistently eat.  Some days, his whole days caloric intake consists of a few bites of something and a glass of milk...and yet he still has more energy than Seth and I put together!  He is growing so we try not to fret too much....plus, the more we concentrate on making him eat, the more he rebels.  Ah well, remind me of this blog post when he is 15 and eating us out of house and home!  I completely missed blogging the holidays but in short, we were once again blessed to be surrounded by family and friends and had several fun gatherings!  I could go on and on but I'll sum it up in 4 words:  Food, food, fellowship and food.  I did manage to put together a video of Josiah from Christmas morning.  Let's just say that he definitely understood the present thing this year and boy was he excited!!  Take a look:

Playtime!

We had a rare evening at home with just the three of us the other night so playtime ensued:-)  I hurried to edit this and get it on the Blog just for you Kaidance, Madilyn and Aubrey!!  Enjoy:-)

What has the little man been up to?

I haven't posted about Josiah in a few weeks so I thought I'd update you all on what he's been doing these days.  Mainly, he's perfecting the art of being two years old.  A friend from church taught him to say "I'm 2, and I'm good at it!" a few weeks ago and boy was she right!  He is mainly a happy go lucky kind of guy...unless he is short on sleep and then LOOK OUT!  Wailing, gnashing of teeth and crying abound!  I don't think he is unique in this development, in fact most parents probably can relate.  I can't complain too much because a good dose of sleep restores order and all is well again:-)  He talks NON-stop and by non-stop, I mean, from the time he opens his eyes to the time he closes them again, he is narrating life.  One positive to this is that I don't have to be in the same room with him to know what he's up to, he tells me:-)  Overall he is a sweet little guy and keeps us laughing all the time with his antics and commentary on life.  Here are a couple pictures and a video to illustrate further.

He discovered "chock-whet" cake and hasn't looked
 back...the boy has a sweet tooth just like his daddy!

Doing his best Forrest Gump impression

Friedt Family Vacation 2011

Well, I started with over 350 pictures but was able to whittle them down to a manageable amount...still too many to just post the pics though so here is the slideshow instead:-)  As you'll see, we had a really fun time and amazing weather!  A BIG THANK YOU to Jay and Renee for letting us crash at their "cabin" (read: beautiful lake home) for the week, we appreciate it so much!!!  Josiah is still talking about going on "bay-cation" at the "caven" and wants to know when we can go back:-)

Time flies when you're having fun

I haven't been very good at keeping up with blogging the past few weeks but time is flying!  We went on our first summer vacation (blog post about that to follow) and Josiah turned 2!!  I will be blogging about that later also...still waiting on pics from a few people:-)  In the meantime, here are a few pics and a video that show what Josiah's been up to...

Bedtime snack with Daddy

Drum or stool?  Dual purpose in Josiah's world!

Josiah helped set the table, Froggie was overseeing
but clearly dozed off on the job...tsk tsk.

Peeling a "norange"

All decked out for the holiday weekend!

Like Father, Like Son 3rd edition

I have to admit that Josiah has been a bit of a "momma's boy" so far but lately he has been taking quite a bit of interest into what his daddy is up to.  His favorite question has been "Hey Daddy, what you doin'?"  It's pretty cute:-)  As you may remember from previous posts, we got an awesome playset in our backyard about a year ago and it includes a sandbox.  As you may also recall from this post, Seth spent a LOT of time in his sandbox growing up and we wondered if Josiah would follow in those footsteps.  I think we have our answer:

Learning the ropes from Daddy

Everyone needs the proper tools for the job

Starting the big job of transferring sand into his bucket

"Whew, this is hard work!"

Concentration

Like father, like son

Like Father, Like Son 2nd edition

As I have mentioned many times, people have remarked at how much Josiah looks like Seth since the day he was born.  As he gets older and his personality comes out more and more, it is obvious that he thankfully has a lot of Seth's personality traits as well.  Nothing makes me happier or warms my heart more than to see Seth and Josiah interacting and developing that very special father-son bond.  Here are a few pictures that I captured that show some of those moments:

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a low-key Valentine's Day this year opting to stay home and cook instead of brave the restaurant scene.  I made dinner and Cindy and Gary joined us to get in a few last minutes with Josiah before they embark on a 3 week adventure to Texas!  Side note: Seth and Noah will be joining them for the ride down and then flying back next Thursday so you'll likely see more posts over the next few weeks of mostly pictures so they can keep up with Josiah's adventures:-)  Back to the subject at hand: Valentine's Day.  It was like any other day except we got to finish with a sweet treat from cousins Miles and Henry and a final *bang* thanks to some whack-a-pack fun from the Dollar Store.  Hope you all had a wonderful day and got to celebrate with your loved ones!!



All decked out in red for the day...even had his red shoes on!




Yummy cupcake, thanks Miles and Henny Bug!!



Peas, peas and more peas

Josiah is a picky eater and keeps us on our toes trying to find foods he will consistently eat.  The ironic thing with him is that the only thing I have found that he will eat no matter what, are peas.  Yes, you read that correctly, peas.  My mom is an avid pea-hater and is dismayed at the prospect of having a grandson who LOVES her least favorite food but here is video evidence.  Sorry Mom:-)

Paradise

We are back from our trip to Arizona and we had a great time!  Despite having an emotional goodbye with Josiah on Friday morning, I was able to pull it together by the time we reached the airport.  We definitely missed our little man but knew that he was in very capable hands and would be having a fun filled weekend with Grammy, Papa, Uncle Josh and Uncle Noah!  Seth and I discussed on the plane how in the world we would have kept Josiah sitting in our laps for 3-1/2 hours and both decided that it would have been impossible.  Major kudos to you parents out there that have done it and survived (Jan-extra kudos for surviving with TWINS)!  The trip there was pretty uneventful with the exception of the landing...let's just say that it might have been the pilot's first landing and we almost lost the landing gear since we slammed into the ground so hard...and then almost slid off the end of the runway because the brakes weren't working so well in the rain.  Yikes!  But we survived and on we went.  We stayed at Cibola Vista Resort and it was absolutely gorgeous!!  The Shevik family were all there to greet us and were wonderful hosts the whole weekend.  Laurie and Brian's wedding was held at Blackstone Country Club and it was the most picturesque venue I have ever seen, seriously movie worthy!  The ceremony was gorgeous as was the bride...and the groom and wedding party didn't look too shabby either:-)  The reception and dance were an absolute blast and as usual, the Beckers and Sheviks lit up the dance floor until the last dance...something about a wedding dance that gets even the most uncoordinated of us shakin' our groove thing!  Sunday found us all recovering by the pool and acting like 12 year olds with multiple rides down the water slide and several rounds of "whirlpool" all the while sipping froo-froo drinks that were delivered poolside...now THAT is vacation!!  It was the first time in quite awhile that all 20 of the Becker/Shevik clan has been together, don't worry, my mom took plenty of pictures:-)  Despite having my camera with the whole time, I only managed to get a few shots of the view from our balcony...I will steal some other good ones from Mom and Robin's blogs when they post:-)  Monday we headed home and went from 82 and sunny to 45 and windy...but hey, it's MN, what did we expect:-)  We were sad to leave AZ but excited to get home to Josiah!  It was a great get-away...a big CONGRATS to Mr. and Mrs. Brian Arnold!!  Thanks for including us in your big day!!  And now, without further ado, here are the few pictures I managed to take:

State Fair 2010

I realize that it's been a month since we attended the Great MN State Get Together but better late than never, right?!  We braved going on what turned out to be a record setting day for attendance (234,384 people) and we did it with 2 strollers and 3 kids under the age of 2-1/2!  Crazy you say??  Maybe, but it was worth it!  The weather was picture perfect and the kids were angels!  We all piled into Robin and Kyle's new minivan and headed up at morning nap time to take advantage of some quiet time.  All 3 boys napped on the way up and were ready to go when we arrived.  If you're keeping count that's 4 adults, 3 carseats, 2 strollers....and a partridge in a pear tree:-)  In years past we have arrived at the Fair with no plan and wandered around which has lead to some tense moments when we realize that the place we are headed for is 7 blocks away....in the direction we just came from.  Not so this year!  I put my natural nerdiness to work and printed a Fair map and highlighted all the locations we wanted to hit up ahead of time so we went in with a planned route!  MUCH better and added bonus, we got to sample every food-on-a-stick our little heart's desired....and at a much cheaper cost since our planned route included stops at food vendors who offered coupons!  Nerdiness and thriftiness in perfect harmony:-)  One of the highlights of the Fair for the little boys was the John Deere display where we let them loose to run around the tractors and they decided to try their hand at landscaping which I'm sure the Fair people were really grateful for:

"Work fast Josiah, we MUST move all this mulch before they notice!"

"Got it Miles, I'm right behind you!"

Another highlight was the "Little Farm Hands" exhibit where they got to don aprons and go through a series of  stands that shows where the food we eat comes from.  They were a little young to understand the concept but had fun anyway:

We're all set with official aprons and buckets!

Josiah and Mommy in the "Little Farm Hands" line

"What do you mean put the seeds in the dirt, I'm just going to eat them instead!"

Tractor racing!

While the big boys were running around, little Henry observed from the stroller and planned out the food he'd like to sample next year when his teeth have all arrived:

The little Bug:-)

All in all we had a great day and are looking forward to our trip up next year!!

Finally on the mend...we hope!

It's been quite a week at the Friedt household.  Apparently all the germs in a 10 mile radius got together and held a conference at our house without asking permission because we would have never willingly agreed to such madness!  It all started Monday night when Josiah came down with the stomach flu...and by "came down with" I mean we were up from 12:30-5:00 trying to minimize the damage that his reappearing breakfast/lunch/dinner was causing.  Anywho...after 4 sheet/pj changes, the little guy was finally able to get some sleep (mommy too)!  Relief!  But the story is just getting started.  Tuesday night, Seth came home looking like he had green face paint on...seriously, I don't think I've ever seen someone look THAT green without paint assistance!  So, he was down for the count Tuesday night/Wednesday as I was walking around bragging how "I don't have time to get sick, I'm the mommy!"  Uh-huh.  Turns out that while I truly don't "have time" to be sick, sometimes the body revolts anyway!  Thursday afternoon/evening was a miserable few hours complete with an experience I had never had before and never want to have again.  I will spare you the details, you are welcome.  So, as I drifted off to sleep Thursday night I was thinking "Good, now we've all had it and can move on with life"  Riiiiiggghhht, not so much.  While the stomach flu had indeed moved on, Josiah woke up Friday with a high fever and was obviously in pain of some sort.  A trip to the doctor and we had our answer.  Poor little guy had an ear infection, strep infection and hand/foot/mouth disease (which causes blisters in the throat).  No wonder he wasn't too keen on eating or doing much of anything!  I'm not sure how much more a little guy can have at one time but I hope to never find out!  But, in usual kid fashion, he woke up Saturday morning almost back to himself.  That amoxicillin is amazing stuff:-)  He is still a bit touchy and we are still doing tylenol regularly to help with the sore throat but he is definitely on the mend and we are SO grateful!  Obviously we didn't document this wonderful week with too many pictures but this is how I found Josiah sleeping the other night and it pretty much sums it up:

Like Father, Like Son

Since the day Josiah was born, we have predominantly heard "He looks JUST like Seth!"  In truth, he DOES look a lot like Seth, especially with his curly blond hair:-)  Yesterday, I snapped two pictures to confirm that he not only LOOKS like Seth, is IS a mini-me of Seth!

First of all, we were up almost all of Monday night because the poor little guy was getting sick every 10-20 minutes:-(  I stayed home with him Tuesday and he spent the majority of the day laying on the couch watching Signing Time.  Lo and behold, Seth came home from driving truck last night and looked as green as Josiah so today, he has assumed this same post (minus the Signing Time)...I spared him taking a picture to post but here is Josiah:

Josiah did venture off the couch a few times yesterday to sit quietly on the living room floor and play with a few toys.  At one point he found his snack cup with crackers in it and while I was hesitant to let him eat, he really wanted to carry the cup so I let him.  Turns out, he wasn't eating the crackers, he was loading them into his dump truck:-)  He apparently has acquired Seth's love of driving and operating a dump truck, here is what I found when I was picking up last night (I don't know why it's sideways, it's not sideways on my drive, only when it uploads here and I can't figure out how to rotate it??):

A-visiting we go!

We had the opportunity to visit Seth's grandparents (Gary's parents) last night and were treated to a yummy meatloaf dinner by Grandma Mary! We had a great time and Josiah enjoyed exploring the house and playing with Grandma Mary and Grandpa Ray. He dressed up in his Twins garb because Grandma and Grandpa are big fans so we knew they'd get a kick out of his outfit:

A few months ago when we visited, Grandma Mary showed Josiah the wind chime and ever since, he's been obsessed with them! He says "ning-ning" which we think stands for "ding-ding" and means "I'd like to play with the wind chime please" He is surprisingly gentle with them and gets the biggest kick out them!

Here is what you get when you wait until the end of the evening to get a picture of the toddler who's pushing bedtime:

Ah, success! Thank you "ning-ning"

Visiting is fun but it wears a fella out! Thanks for the fun night Grandma and Grandpa!

Becker Family Vacation 2010

So, I know you are thinking "Didn't they just get back from vacation?" And you are correct, we did! But we were blessed this summer to be able to take two vacations, one with each side of the family! This time it was with my side of the family and even though we missed having Marc & Jen, Nykki and Helen along, the rest of us had a wonderful time! This time we stayed in good ole MN and headed north to Deerwood to a BEAUTIFUL cabin we rented from a friend of my mom's. It was spacious and newly remodeled and plenty of room for our ever expanding family:-) We spent the week in usual vacation fashion: relaxing, chatting, napping and playing games. The weather was Uh-mazing and made for two perfect days to be out on the water on the pontoon. We had a few memorable moments including the afternoon we decided to try and dock the pontoon at the swimming beach....who knew that wasn't allowed?? So yes, it was "The Clampetts go Boating" for a few minutes but we managed to get docked in a more appropriate spot and had our picnic lunch:-) Having 3 little boys under the age of 2-1/2 makes for non-stop activity but also so much fun and laughter! We all enjoyed watching them play together and explore the cabin and yard...they especially enjoyed the Pine Cone Hunt with Nana! It kept them busy for the better part of the afternoon so their mommies could enjoy a rousing game of Phase 10...thank you Nana!!! Speaking of Nana, she has become quite the swimmer these days (she swims at least 5 mornings a week at the health club!) and is considering doing a triathalon (this is one FIT Nana!) so she wanted to test out swimming in the lake. She suited up and we drove next to her in the pontoon and she did excellent! Her training time was cut short though because the rest of us were worried about the other boat traffic on the lake getting a bit too close for comfort! I have to share a great quote from Miles who, as always, was FULL of funny things to say. One morning I made his breakfast and when I set it down in front of him he said "Thank you Bethy, this looks GREAT!" What a hunny:-) Josiah's big accomplishment this week has been the use of a spoon or fork when he eats. Nana and Robin worked hard with him one morning to "scoop" his cheerios and lo and behold, he does it! And he is SO proud, with every bite he says "Coop" and smiles:-) I know this is a normal milestone but we are pretty proud of him:-) As usual, there are WAY too many pictures to post them all but I made a slide show of some good ones. Robin alone took just over 500 pictures! I didn't even get to look at my mom's before making the slide show so there may be an amended version at some point but for all of you who just can't wait, here you go:-)

Friedt Family Vacation 2010

We just returned from an amazing 5 days up north with Seth's side of the family and we had a fantastic time! A special THANK YOU to Jay and Renee for once again opening their lake home to us, it is a beautiful spot and we are so fortunate to get to go there! We headed up on Saturday morning, Josiah slept the first hour or so and then was awake the rest of the way. He was a great rider, he was happy most of the way until we got about 2-1/2 hours into the 3 hour trip and then he started to voice his displeasure with being strapped into his car seat for such a long time. Never fear, mommy packed crackers in the new snack cup and voila, happy again! We spent the next 5 days relaxing, eating, riding on the pontoon, eating, swimming at the sandbar, eating, playing games, eating, sitting by the campfire and oh, did I mention eating? As usual, we did not go hungry:-) Cindy, Gary, Noah, Vanessa, Erik, Addison and Ashley all came up Saturday as well. Ashley had to leave Monday to go back to work but we were glad she could join us for the time she did! Josh surprised everyone by sneaking in at 1:00AM Monday morning with the help of Seth and I, I love pulling off surprises! The look on Cindy's face when she got up Monday morning and saw Josh was priceless! Lucky for us, Grandma and Grandpa Day were also able to join us this year and arrived Monday afternoon to join in the festivities. We celebrated Seth's 31st birthday on Tuesday. He had a full day with some time on the water, a round of golf with Josh, a few beers (and one shot at the local tavern, the Inn Between) and Grandma Pat's famous coconut cake accompanied by Cindy's yummy homemade ice cream! I think I speak for him when I say it was a great birthday! Unfortunately all good things must come to an end so we reluctantly packed up on Wednesday afternoon to head home. Once again Josiah was a great traveler, sleeping for over 2 hours of the trip, a quick stop for some grub and back in the car for another hour with no crying this time! We all had a wonderful time and got a lot of rest and relaxation in, thank you to Grammy Cindy and Papa Gary for organizing the trip!! We took too many pictures to post them individually so I put together a slide show...enjoy!

Latest adventures of Josiah Michael

Josiah is one busy boy these days! He is working on walking but for now he still prefers crawling. I think he feels it's still the safest mode of transportation since he still tends to tip over when walking. He likes to be in whatever room we are in and thoroughly explores the room. He of course gets into whatever he finds interesting...usually cords, pens, papers, and anything else that toddlers find fascinating but are usually kept away from, oh cruel world! He has started to explore the world of tantrums and LOUDLY objects when things are taken away from him...sound familiar to you parents out there?? We are working on helping him find his "patient button" as my mom's friend Gloria calls it:-) So far, the search is still on:-) He is turning into Daddy's little helper and his most frequent word is "Dada". He thinks it's especially fun to wake Daddy up in the morning...I'm not sure Daddy thinks the waking up part is especially fun but it's hard to wake up crabby when you have a twinkly-eyed, smiling baby saying your name so excitedly:-) Josiah is still a BIG fan of water and bathtime. All I have to do is mention "fishy" and he heads to the bathroom. Side note: Fishy is what he calls the faucet cover (a big thank you to Great Grandma Greseth for Fishy!) His other favorite words include: Yite (light), O-kee (okie dokie), Thoo (shoe), Boon (balloon), Ih-kee (icky), Up (up), Oot (out) and Shees (cheese) I am working on capturing them all on one video but so far have been unsuccessful...we'll keep trying! Last night I discovered that Josiah has a natural talent for climbing stairs. I took him downstairs to "help" with the laundry and he crawled right over to the steps and up he went like he's been doing that for months! As far as I know, he's never attempted them before so I am giving him credit for being a natural. Natural climber...hmm, a mother's worst nightmare?? We'll see! Here are a few pictures from the past month and a couple videos to catch you up on Josiah's adventures:-)

Daddy's little helper! A little TV repair? No problem, we've got it Mom!

"Yite!" He is obsessed with lights and finds the pull string type that he can turn on and off by himself especially fun!

"But I don't WANT to help with laundry Mama!"

"Ishy!!"

"Check it out Mom, I'm a natural climber!!"

"Ishy" time!

Stair Climbing? No problem!

Passed down to a new generation

Seth's mom (Cindy) made this outfit for Josh (the oldest Friedt son) 33 years ago and all three of the Friedt boys wore it. She found it the other day so we thought it would be fun to try it on Josiah, pretty darn cute no? Thanks to Grammy Cindy for loaning us the outfit and thanks to Auntie Robin for her fine photog skills, here are the pictures:

New Swingset!!

We got a new swing set!! Well, it's really more than just a swing set, it's a whole swing/sandbox/elevated fort "system":-) We have been on the lookout for one since the one that used to be in the backyard was sent to the recycling center when it became too wobbly. We weren't finding much when my aunt and uncle's neighbor said that we could have theirs if we moved it...and by "we", I mean Seth because I was of no help in that department! Luckily, we have FANTASTICALLY skilled and generous friends and family members who helped out tremendously! I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Steve for borrowing his impact wrench (I think that's what it's called anyway, like I said, not my department) to the project. Also a HUGE thank you to Kyle, Gary, Joe and Alex without who this would not have been possible and certainly wouldn't have been completed in a day and a half!! You guys are the greatest and Josiah, Seth and I appreciate it more than you know!!!! And of course, another BIG BIG thank you to the Wilson family for passing on this great toy to us, it will be put to good use, I promise!! I did not get any pictures of the actual moving/reconstructing process, I failed there but here are a few cute shots from the weekend and a shot of the complete set...

Olivia and Josiah supervised

Miles is all packed up and ready to go after his daddy spent a LONG day helping out!

Part of the crew at the celebratory "We're done!" pizza party!! Malkin checking out the completed project (he also christened the tree on the way for extra protection...thanks buddy!)

This is a shot of the unit in the Wilson's yard before being disassembled and reassembled but it's the best shot I have of it so far...pretty fancy, no?!